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Alex Berenson

Biography

Alex Berenson

Alex Berenson was born in New York in 1973 and grew up in Englewood, N.J. After graduating from Yale University in 1994 with degrees in history and economics, he joined the Denver Post as a reporter. In 1996, he became one of the first employees at TheStreet.com, the groundbreaking financial news website.

In 1999, he joined The New York Times. At the Times, he covered everything from the drug industry to Hurricane Katrina; in 2003 and 2004, he served two stints as a correspondent in Iraq, an experience that led him to write THE FAITHFUL SPY, his debut novel, which won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel.

He has now written 10 John Wells novels and one work of nonfiction, THE NUMBER. He left the Times in 2010 to devote himself to writing fiction, though he still contributes occasionally to the Times.

Alex lives in Garrison, N.Y. with his wife, Dr. Jacqueline Berenson, their children Lucy and Ezra, their badly behaved dog Maggie, and Maggie’s dog Teddy.

Alex Berenson

Books by Alex Berenson

It is the most dangerous mission of John Wells’s career. Evidence is mounting that someone high up in the CIA is doing the unthinkable --- passing messages to ISIS, alerting them to planned operations. Finding out the mole’s identity without alerting him, however, will be very hard, and to accomplish it, Wells will have to reassume his former identity as an al Qaeda jihadi, get captured and go undercover to befriend an ISIS prisoner in a secret Bulgarian prison. Many years before, Wells was the only American agent ever to penetrate al Qaeda, but times have changed drastically. The terrorist organizations have multiplied: gotten bigger, crueler, more ambitious and powerful. Wells knows it may well be his death sentence. But there is no one else.

John Wells has just barely managed to stop an operation designed to drive the United States and Iran into war, but the instigator himself disappeared behind an impenetrable war of security. Now it’s time for him to pay, and Wells has made it his personal mission. But the White House doesn’t want anybody stirring the pot; his old CIA bosses have their own agendas; and other countries are starting to sniff around, sensing something unusual. It is when Russia and China enter the mix, however, that the whole affair is set to combust. With alarming speed, Wells is once again on his own…and the wolves are closing in.

John Wells, with his former CIA bosses Ellis Shafer and Vinnie Duto, has uncovered a staggering plot, a false-flag operation to convince the President to attack Iran. But they have no hard evidence. Now the President has set a deadline for Iran to give up its nuclear program, and the mullahs in Tehran --- furious and frightened --- have responded with a deadly terrorist attack. Wells, Shafer and Duto know they have only 12 days to find the proof they need.

In an Istanbul hotel, a deep source warns a CIA agent that Iran intends to kill a CIA station chief. John Wells is called in to investigate, but before he can get far, the tip comes true. Which means that the next warning the source gives will be taken very seriously indeed. And it’s a big one. We’ve put a package on a ship from Dubai to the United States. A radioactive one. A bomb? Not yet. It’s a test run.

Four friends, recent college graduates, travel to Kenya to work at a giant refugee camp for Somalis. But after 12 weeks, they’re ready for a break and pile into a Land Cruiser for an adventure. They get more than they bargained for, though, when bandits hijack them. John Wells is asked to try to find them; when he arrives, he finds that the truth behind the kidnappings is far more complex than he imagined.

In 2009, the CIA's Kabul Station fell for a source who promised to lead it to Bin Laden, but instead blew himself up. More than two years later, the station is still floundering, and the CIA's chiefs wonder if it somehowhas been infiltrated by the Taliban.

In Saudi Arabia, a series of terrorist attacks has put the Kingdom on edge. King Abdullah is losing his hold, and his own secret police cannot be trusted. With nowhere to turn, the king asks for ex-CIA agent John Wells's help.